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Beatification and Canonization with Special Reference to Historic Proof and the Proof of Miracles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 1912

Allen Dudley Severance
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Extract

A firm grasp of the principles of evidence is essential to the success of the historian. When an alleged miracle is to be verified the questions at once arise, “Are miracles differently proved from other facts?” “Do they demand the same amount of testimony?” or “Are more witnesses required than for an ordinary event?” In 1883, the Jesuit De Smedt wrote in his Critique Historique as follows: “The possibility of a miracle never troubles seriously the judgment of Catholic critics …, they know that they must demand a superabundance of proofs, which they do not ask for when the facts are entirely in accord with physical laws.” For an illustration of the application of this rule, he refers his readers to the process of canonization as practised by “the tribunal, the most respectable in the eyes of Catholics.” Of course he refers to the Congregation of Rites and Ceremonies.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the American Society of Church History , Volume 3 , March 1912 , pp. 41 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Church History 1912

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References

Bioliography

De Smedt, Ch., La Critique Historique, Liège and Paris, La Société Bibliographique, 1883.Google Scholar
Boudinhon, A.Les Proès de Béatification et de Canonisation, Paris, Bloud et Cie, 1908, 3e ed.Google Scholar
Macken, Rev. Thomas, F., The Canonization of Saints, Dublin, M. H. Gill & Son, 1910; The Catholic Encyclopedia, art. “Beatification,” N. Y., Robert Appleton Company, 1906 et seq.Google Scholar
Faber, F. W., Essay on Beatification, Canonization, etc., London, 1848.Google Scholar
Benedict XIV., “Heroic Virtue,” a portion of the Treatise of, Translation from the Latin, London, Thomas Richardson & Son, 1850–2.Google Scholar
Moigno, L'Abbé François Napoléon Marie, Les Splendeurs de la Foi, Paris, Bleriot et Gautier, 1882. Vol. v. has the sub-title, “Le Miracle au Tribunal de la Science,” and contains the “Actes des procès de Béatification et Canonisation de Saint Benoit-Joseph Labre” (pp. xxxi., 895).Google Scholar